This particular artwork has taken over a year to complete. The unfinished version, which I posted months ago, is now in Scraps:[link]

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this to be done. Please click on the larger version; the glory is in the details!------- edit -------My mother dislikes the butterflies. It sounds silly, but she does have a good eye and I am suddenly thrown into doubt... what do you think about the butterflies? Should they be there? Do they steal the limelight from the girl? If so, how do I put something where the butterflies are to balance the composition of the piece, without detracting from the girl?

Well, I think the butterflies are good--otherwise the sky would look interesting but empty. But the butterflies themselves might be a bit distracting--the color, maybe, since they're really the only blue things in the picture. Also they look less like butterflies in flight, and more like butterflies when they're resting on a flower (they look more like butterfly stickers at the moment...)

But besides that, beautiful picture! I love what you did with the girl's dress, especially.

maybe you could make the butterflies more reddish like her dress to balance the large amount of red in the piece and you could move them father more in the left top corner. otherwise, though, this is amazing.

I think the butterflies are a nice touch, but placing right in the center like that does steal focus away from the girl, especially since they're so bold - the purple butterflies against the yellow sunset is the highest point of contrast in the piece, so my eye keeps wandering over to them. I'd suggest putting them closer to the girl, and maybe changing them to a more subtle color, maybe green like all the vines. Other than that, though, this piece is amazing - I love the lighting, the composition, how her face is turned away from the viewer, and all the rich colors you put into it. It's very lovely.

Thanks for the feedback! Green might be a good idea. I once tried making them white-ish (sort of like the twinkly sparks around the butterflies in the sky), but they were too pale, and for some reason I just didn't consider any other colors. I'll play around and see what happens. As for placement though, I probably wouldn't put them closer because the point of putting them in was to balance the composition (I thought it was bottom-left heavy with just her and nothing else in the sky on the other side of the work).

It turned out very well! The detail is very nice and again, I must bow to your skills with digital art. I know you went through a lot of trying times to get this piece done and I can say they've paid off though-- amazing work!

THis is a fantastic piece of work, very well done. The only thing I want to poit outis that there's a section in the top right that seems too dark compared to the rest; it's most vivid where it cuts a line through a cloud.